Guild Wars 2

We know for a while that items of past events won`t be comming back.
With the re-introduction of the molten facility and the aetherblade dungeon into the fractals we also got the conformation that the unique items from there are not in the loottable (yet?)
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/fractured/Rewards-of-Old/first#post3228355

This is a little sad to hear, because i have to ask: “Is it the right direction?”

Is limiting the access to “cool” stuff to a timeframe the right idea?

Now don`t get me wrong. Limited access to certain items are nothing new. In fact it was a great part of the original guild wars for holidays and it appears in other games as well.
Basicly these are “time-exclusive items”. You had to be there to get them.

This is usually a great idea, since you reward players who are with you from the start for sticking to the game. Playing it allows them to aquire stuff that players who jump in later won`t be getting.
In Warhammer Online you got a cool looking cape if you were part of the game for a year since the start and if you bought the original Guild Wars extensions at launch you got a special dance emote.

While it is a problem for players who come in late, it is rewarding for players who are sticking to the game and i have no problem with that.

However, for Guild Wars 2 there are two distinct differences:
- The pace of the releases
- The RNG problem.

Guild Wars 2 has a bi-weekly/monthly release cycle. Right now you have roughly a month to do the content before it will go away.
While this sounds like a long time, it depends on which part of the reward you are going for.
While we have some guaranteed rewards bound to archievments (now), we also got items as drops and hidden in monetary chests (the Black Lion Chests)

We got RNG on top of a limited timeframe, combined with a money-drain.

While the black lion chests have been changed to contain the skins of past events, other items are still “lost”, which feels wastefull.

It is a great feeling for a player to get something “rare”, however right now these items are rarer then the supposed “legendary” items.
A direction like this creates a new “market” of valueable items ingame. That is a good thing, as long as it is not too limiting to the players.

Too many limiting factors add up, making an item “rare”, but also hurting the players who try everything to get them. As soon as RNG adds up, the chances just get smaller.

The best example is the molten facility backpack, something that could have come back now.
Time + low RNG (a RNG that was shared with other low RNGs at the same time) allowed only for a limited access to the item.

The pace in which we see these items come and go is to high. Not everyone has the time or patience to redo content again and again to win against the stacks that are presented to us.

While they changed a lot of rewards, i hope they will go further. The best idea would be a “guaranteed” acountbound skin of a selection (like the finale in gw), with the chance to get “tradeable” versions through RNG.

I don`t complain about not getting something (mostly) it just feels like a waste for a lot of the items that are put ingame. There are efforts to reintroduce these elements into the game, but in my opinion they should reevaluate the buisnesstactic to fit their new pace.

The other side to this equation is that if they keep doing this, the rewards scatter and different people will be wearing different things so not everyone looks the same. It’s only really a problem if people set their hearts on something very specific and feel they must have it.

I’ve gotten every single reward for the LS except the mini-liadri, which I didn’t bother trying for.

You know how much of it gets used? Very little.

I do like the idea about being able to choose rewards, but the downside of that comes with creation. Mostly they’re only creating one or two rewards per living story chapter.

By asking them to create enough rewards to give people a viable choice, we’re asking for more time to be put into short updates. I’m not sure Anet has the man-power for that.

Worst part is that you cannot ever purchase the item you desire.

You really want a molten alliance mining pick? Too bad. Never one on sale because it’s account bound.

The mini for winning the rollerbeetle race was tradable, even the character specific tonics that were created were tradable in GW1…

Kumu Honua.2751:

Worst part is that you cannot ever purchase the item you desire.

You really want a molten alliance mining pick? Too bad. Never one on sale because it’s account bound.

The mini for winning the rollerbeetle race was tradable, even the character specific tonics that were created were tradable in GW1…

I can’t see them allowing Gem Store items to be traded. That just seems counter-productive.

I think it is good that everyone does not own every item in-game. Otherwise, it would be so homogenous and rather boring. Just my opinion, of course.

One side-effect of Anet’s take on evolving a living world is that your gaming becomes simply ticking off items on a to-do list. The fact that this content comes and goes with a deadline makes it more akin to work than play.

I believe that they got the general idea of moving a living world forward right, but not the mechanism. The key is evolution—that’s how living world’s move forward. And, the product of evolution is a sense of permanence, even with constant change taking place. Anet has settled on episodic TV as a model. The world comes and goes with each release. Consider the old TV series Gunsmoke. We had 20 years of it and everything stayed pretty much the same. The characters had an adventure each week but at the end of a show everything reset and the next show started a new adventure. Dodge stayed pretty much the same and the characters only changed when someone died or moved on IRL. A living world just doesn’t evolve when people and place don’t evolve.

An alternate model could be found in delivering an expansion in terms of the living world, but doing it over time. Consider an issue of dire importance and consequence arising in, say, Cantha. Each release could be steps to opening new territory with its related story and character progression, all with a view to finally arriving in Cantha and saving it from a fate worse than death. All content would be permanent and achievements and rewards would be available to anyone at any time. There would be no deadlines, just unfolding story. Everything added would be permanent and achievements could be done at your leisure.

At any rate, this is how I relate to temporary items and content. I’d like to see it become permanent with deeper story and character progression through skill, ability, and story progression.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

I think it is good that everyone does not own every item in-game. Otherwise, it would be so homogenous and rather boring. Just my opinion, of course.

That’s how it is now. The unique items are so rare/hard to get that most people don’t have a choice.

Its only a problem with backpieces. Thanks to Living Story temporary content, the availability of backpieces in this game to new users is pathetic. There’s a whole 5 or 6 on the market right now including the sold-for-gold Living Story ones, and a few at the guild merchants at the Lion’s arch bank, and that’s it. The ones in the gem store aren’t even unique, they’re just recolored versions of the Black Lion Chest / TP ones.

Its creating more monotany with backpieces , rather than encouraging variety. I wear the red rose on three characters already because its the best I could get.

I might have to rephrase one thing.

i was not talking abou the current reward model, as it is actually very forgiving.

However there is still the problem that the timelimit + high RNG for “special items” are hard to stomach. Even more if we look at the pace the game is switching these items.

If you think really going for it in one month, only to be on the wrong side of the RNG and that happens in a row it is quite discuraging, as these items most likely won`t come back.

While they elevated these problems, by introducing the “guaranteed” rewards via the archievment and end-dungeon rewards, there is still the matter with high RNG on certain items.

most of the time the best looking, of course (luckily not with the Toxic alliance, soa re they learning?).
While “hard to get RNG” Items are usually a good thing, it is hurtfull and counterproductive if they are limited. Even more in an everchanging release cycle and no way to get these items later.

It is basicly dangeling keys in front of ones nose again and again and again…

High RNG and the creation of “rare items” makes sense if it is a “rare” event or content that stays in the game, so players can try again and be rewarded for their dedication.

However in the current model it can get pretty frustrating, because you can invest all the time you want, if RNG takes over, you can mostly only resort to the “gold-grind” to get the desired item.
While it is another way to show this “dedication” i don`t think it is the intended way to do so.

@ Kumu Honua
I was not talking about gemstore items. Molten Pickaxe and the like should stay in the gemstore, though i would like if they were more linient with weapon skins.
They create some nice weapons, but it can turn into a costly RNG game.

btw. do you really think everyone would look the same, if they were able to get these items “easier”?
isn`t the personal desire to create your own independend character a greater goal, instead of going with the “item of the month”?
If we see a homogenous developement in a certain direction, isn`t it because there is a certain variability missing?
Which could be elevated with a more adapted distribution method via the living world?